User blog:Alzrius/Sex and Sensibility
A young girl, born into a life of pampered nobility, yearns for something more. Abandoning her privileged lifestyle to become an adventurer, she must overcome numerous obstacles, including her domineering sisters, to find the strength within herself that will let her change not only her own fate, but that of a nation. The above summary is remarkable for how feminist and empowering it sounds, isn't it? In fact, but for a few changes, this could very well be the tagline for something like Disney's recent movie, Brave. Now compare that with the picture on the right. There's little defending the image as anything besides male masturbatory fodder. Even leaving aside the unrealistic (though admittedly not impossible) body proportions, the armor alone is much more in line with something a stripper would wear than a serious warrior. The fact that the description and the picture are of the same person is somewhat mind-boggling in its attempt to reconcile such disparate elements. Such is, to my mind, at least, the reason why Queen's Blade has more depth than it's usually given credit for. Still, it's an issue that deserves to be explored more thoroughly: is Queen's Blade a series that objectifies women, or glorifies them? Are its cast members sex objects meant for men to pleasure themselves to, or are they strong, powerful women who are unafraid of - but not beholden to - their own sexuality? Let's try and find out. A Tale of Two Queens Before going any further, it's necessary to clearly identify just how we're looking at the series. On the one hand, it can be contextualized as a commodity; that is, Queen's Blade is a set of intellectual properties across various media that is exploited for profit by its corporate owners. On the other hand, it can be looked at from an in-character perspective to try and understand its characters as products of a holistic world that they inhabit, and how that shapes their actions and personalities. These two views get to the heart of the matter, and which one the viewer adopts will likely shape how they respond to the series. Someone who can't get past the visual design of the girls is unlikely to be able to view them as anything more than incarnations of the marketing adage "sex sells." On the other hand, someone who takes the time to delve into the characters' stories will likely find them to be, if not compelling characters, then ones that are interesting if for no other reason than how markedly asexual they are, in contrast with their appearance. Undress to Impress The point raised in the last sentence of the previous section deserves further examination. Simply put, there's a huge difference between how the women of Queen's Blade dress versus what we (the viewing audience) expect such clothing to connote about them. To put it another way, the Queen's Blade ladies dress like sluts, without acting like it. This isn't something easily waved away. Issues of sexuality in society that we tend to take for granted seem to be (again, from an in-character point of view) radically different in the world of Queen's Blade. Not only do the main cast members dress in skimpy outfits despite a notable lack of sexually-motivated behavior (save for the occasional sapphic flirting), but almost nobody in the series seems to find them or their attire to be sex symbols. Admittedly, the ladies are called the bitoushi - beautiful fighters - but this surprisingly ubiquitous title seems divorced from any lustful connotations. With one or two very rare exceptions, no one is the least bit aroused by the sight of the scantily-clad women; even instances of them being rendered bare-breasted in full view of a large audience during a fight doesn't seem to move anyone to any degree of lust. It'd be easy to simply hand-wave this away as the world having different norms over what constitutes a sexually-appealing women, but a closer analysis shows that this isn't quite as simple as it seems at first. For one thing, many if not most of the women are embarrassed by instances where many people see them in what we'd consider a sexually-charged state - Melpha, for instance, is notably embarrassed by performing her Holy Poses in public. Leina has shown similar embarrassment at being bare-breasted, albeit usually only when in front of an audience. Cattleya takes pains to cover herself when one of her breasts is exposed during her fight with Ymir, etc. The details on how exactly female sexuality is viewed on the Continent are, unfortunately, still unclear. It certainly seems true that - notwithstanding cultures such as Hinomoto - showing a great deal of female flesh isn't considered lewd, and even bare breasts aren't necessarily outrageous in contemporary society (though still considered somewhat indecent). Without further details, it's hard to be entirely sure what the sociological answer is, or how it was reached. Boobs Sell Books Of course, all of the above is inductive reasoning - while there isn't necessarily any specific evidence either way, it seems fairly clear that the world and the story was developed secondarily, after the characters themselves were created, and this goes back to the meta-view mentioned above: the characters were created to be sex objects. Rationalizing how they're not sex symbols in their narrative could very well be called an issue that's created because the characters are being moved away from their raison d'etre. While the issue of women as objects to be "consumed" (as a commodity, in this case) is too large to discuss and dissect here (particularly with the question of these characters being entirely fictitious, rather than real women selling their sexuality - an aspect I think is given too little consideration), we're still left with the question of how this impacts the view of the cast of Queen's Blade as characters. In this regard, even if we accept that the genesis for Queen's Blade is to market female sexuality for male enjoyment, I'm of the opinion that there's more to an idea than its genesis; that is, just because the characters were created for that purpose doesn't mean that they're necessarily wholly bound and defined by that purpose. Artwork, like all symbols, isn't limited to the vision of its creator nor the consensus of the majority; the viewer is free to take away whatever meaning they see fit to. Babes, Blades, and Escapades Of course, the above reveals that the entirety of the "dilemma" between viewing the cast of Queen's Blade as characters or as commodities is one that's really not difficult to reconcile, as - to put it simply - the answer is whatever each individual viewer wants it to be. I personally view the series with a note of syncreticism between the two issues - that is, I find them both to be true, and have largely reconciled the two viewpoints. It's certainly possible to enjoy something on multiple levels, after all (which, I should add, is no inherently better or worse than enjoying it solely on a single level), and so I find Queen's Blade interesting both for the in-character aspects of the world and the stories of its characters, and because I find the women to be highly sexually desirable. It's surprising how few series can inspire on both of those levels at once; I take so much pleasure in Queen's Blade because it's one of the ones that can. 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